A Pilgrimage of Thanksgiving

Twenty-five years ago, God showed mercy to a thirty-year-old sinner named Dorrene, by healing me of not only a devastating physical disease (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia) but a devastating spiritual one as well (Sin). Though I certainly did not deserve his mercy, I am so glad He extended it to me and I'd like to make a pilgrimage to Israel to thank him for all He's done!  If you are interested in reading the story of those healings, please click here:  
The Tale of Two Transplants...A Story of Physical and Spiritual Restoration 

It is my greatest hope that my physical and spiritual healings were not in vain, but that I have since lived in a way that has glorified God and has positively impacted the people whom He has placed in my life over those years.

Indeed, to my family and friends, I am so thankful for you! I am truly glad to have had these 25 years to be involved in your life and I hope that you are glad to have had me around as well! I pray that in me you have seen something that confirms within you the reality of the One True living and personal God…that He can change both our position and perspective…and thus our lives…and mainly that He loves you!

Two of the people whom I hope have been most blessed because of my physical and spiritual healing, are my son Bryan and daughter Jackie. I don’t have words to express how thankful I am that I have been able to be a part of their lives and to see them grow up into loving, caring and very special human beings. This indeed was an answer to my prayers and I will be forever grateful that God gave me a second shot at living my life rightly and to be an example of what a highly imperfect person can become because of His loving intervention.


And thus, the reason for this GoFundMe campaign: I would like to make a pilgrimage to Israel to offer up praise and thanksgiving to Jesus for these past 25 years…and to be inspired to even greater kingdom living in the next twenty-five. Without a doubt, this will be the trip of my lifetime…and one I never thought might happen. I can’t wait to see what God has in store!

So the ask is this:
First, if God has used me to touch your life, please leave me a comment on this page about how that is true. What a blessing it will be to hear from you and to know my life has made a difference in yours!

Then, if you are moved to contribute to the campaign to help fund the trip to Israel…beautiful!  Anything you give will be helpful and greatly appreciated.

Finally, please pray for my time spent in preparation for the trip and for my time while there. (If you are interested in being on my prayer partner list for my time in Israel, please let me know.)

 Here are a few other details about this trip:

I will be traveling to Israel with Life Church of Rome, GA on February 20-28, 2018.  (Payments towards the trip have already begun. I'd like to pay the balance as soon as possible and secure my place on the tour.)

Sites to be visited include: the Amphitheater, Mt. Carmel, Valley of Megiddo, Tiberius, Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, Church in Cana, Capernaum, Caesarea Philippi, Golan Heights, Mount of Beatitudes, Valley of the Shadow of Death, the Roman Road, Jerusalem, Mount of Olives, Eastern Gate, Garden of Gethsemane, Masada, Dead Sea, Qumran, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Western Wall, Golgotha and the Garden Tomb.

My closing thoughts come from the Apostle Paul: "I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14

Jesus Paid It All

Thanks so much for your help with making this pilgrimage possible!